Introducing our 2024-2025 Volunteer Grant: Apply for two weeks and enjoy a 3rd week for free! Limited grants are available for start dates between December 1st to February 28th. Schedule a phone interview to evaluate eligibility. Make a lasting impact.
Enhance your resume and gain experience working with wildlife as you complete an internship on a South African ranch that is home to over 90 species of animals! Learn to take care of animals, both big and small, on a wild adventure of a lifetime.
Program Highlights:
Your Schedule at a Glance (Minimum two-week commitment):
Arrival Day, Monday: Arrive at George Airport (GRJ). You will be picked up at the airport and taken to your accommodation in Oudtshoorn. Spend the day settling into your new home and getting to know the Oudtshoorn area.
Days 1-4, Tuesday-Friday: Interns spend three days a week shadowing staff and learning about the animals at the ranch from onsite professionals. The other two days interns join the volunteers as they feed, care for, maintain enclosures and take part in the training of the animals. All five days can be counted towards your total hours of internship.
Days 5-6, Saturday-Sunday: Your weekends are free to rest and enjoy your life in Africa. Take a trip through the Swartberg pass and experience the magnificent views from the Swartberg Mountains or visit some Ostrich farms in the Ostrich capital of the world!
Remaining Weeks: The remaining weeks will follow a similar schedule of doing your internship Monday-Friday and having Saturday-Sunday off. Use your weekends to visit the Cango Caves or take a scenic trip down the Garden Route on your weekends. Hiking, canoe trips and safaris are also on the list of opportunities that you have to enjoy during your time off in South Africa. Departures are on a Mon.
What’s Included
What’s not Included
Flights, visas (if required), travel health insurance, weekend meals, personal expenses
The Western Cape is home to South Africa’s most popular tourist destinations, including Cape Town and the scenic wonder that is Table Mountain. The historically significant Robben Island is also a part of the Western Cape.
This project is in the town of Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape, at the base of the Swartberg Mountains. Besides a beautiful view, Oudtshoorn has a fun atmosphere, with its large tourist population and its ostrich farms.
This ranch is home to over 90 endangered animal species, from reptiles to large carnivores and everything in between. The ranch’s staff work diligently to care for several endangered ambassador animals. In doing so, they have created a platform for conservation through education, to encourage public awareness of the plights of various species, as well as environmental issues. This has earned them a WAZA (World Association of Zoos & Aquaria) institutional membership. The Ranch is one of only six institutions in Africa to become a member of this esteemed association.
This program is open to interns with or without previous experience, who are looking for a broad experience in animal husbandry, training, caretaking, and an introduction to veterinary work. You will be up close and personal with the resident wild animals while ensuring their wellbeing through the Ranch’s conservation efforts.
This internship is flexible and can be shaped to fit each intern’s specific requirements. Depending on your university’s specific internship requirements, additional tasks can be performed.
There are two options for interns:
Please note: The Ranch does not have an on-site veterinarian; however, our on-call veterinarian has enabled past university students to shadow him during surgery and procedures. Should there be medical procedures, our on-call vet will teach you all you can think to ask!
Most of your work on this internship revolves around caring for resident animals. When any medical procedures are required on-site, interns are always included. Kindly note that this is reliant on safety and space requirements.
Daily tasks include:
Sample Schedule:
Interns typically work from 08:00- 16:30, with breaks for meals.
An intern will shadow our animal curators for three days of the week, being exposed to the dedicated care of each species-specific professional. The other two days, they will partake in the daily volunteer program to assist us in accomplishing the best possible care and environments for our animals. Schedules can vary depending on the hours required by your degree program, your requirements must be communicated ahead of arrival. After 16:30 you can explore around, go to town which is just a short drive / Uber away, hang out with the volunteers, rest, go for a run, there are many options.
Kindly note: Interns working towards accumulating specific hours should note that all 5 days of work will count towards your total.
Click to see the regular volunteer program option.
The Ranch is about a five-minute walk from your lodge. It will take you about 10 minutes to walk to a local shop and approximately 30 minutes to walk to most places in town, including supermarkets, shops, restaurants and pubs.
Oudtshoorn is a relaxed town, but there are several restaurants and pubs, if you are looking for a night out. Oudtshoorn is safe at night and you can walk the 30-minute route to town. During March and April of each year, a well-known, week long Afrikaans arts festival is held. The town really comes alive, with the streets blocked off for market stalls, shows, bands and plenty of entertainment that thousands of people come to enjoy each year.
This program offers optional tours on weekends of the surrounding attractions, such as bungee jumping, shark cage diving, zip lining, horse back safaris, game drives, elephant experiences and whale watching. Oudtshoorn isn’t called the Ostrich Capital of the world for nothing! There are also Ostrich farms located 10 kilometers south of Oudtshoorn, where experienced guides will teach you all about ostrich farming.
For the more adventurous traveler, a few must-visit sites are listed below:
Cango Caves
Located in Oudtshoorn are the magnificent Cango Caves. These caves were formed from Precambrian limestone and contain paintings and artifacts that date back to the Stone ages. These are the most popular caves in all of South Africa and are certainly worth a visit!
Rust-en-Vrede Waterfall
For the volunteers who love hiking and experiencing the beauty of nature, a hike to this waterfall should be on the “To-Do” list.
Table Mountain National Park
Also in the Western Cape is the famous Table Mountain National Park that comprises the iconic rock formation and various hiking trails. Indigenous African penguins can also be spotted here. Table Mountain is approximately five hours from Oudtshoorn by car.
Please note: tours are subject to change and depend on availability and time of year.
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